Pages

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The
'Helicopter Economics Investing Guide' is meant to help educate people
on how to make profitable investing choices in the current economic
environment. We have coined this term to describe the current monetary
and fiscal policies of the U.S. government, which involve unprecedented
money printing. This is the official blog of the New York Investing
meetup.

In what is being billed as a surprise move, the Bank of Japan lowered
interest rates back to zero and is planning on more quantitative easing.
Along with an unending number of stimulus programs in the last twenty
years, Japan has done it all before. If these economic policies actually
worked, it wouldn't have to be doing them again. U.S. policy makers are
following Japan's lead.

On October 5th, the BOJ announced that it cut interest rates to 0.0% to
0.1%. Rates had been 0.1% since December 2008. Japan had
previously maintained a zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) between 2001
and 2006. The U.S. Fed funds rate has been at 0.0% to 0.25% since
December 2008. The Bank of Japan also announced a $60 billion
quantitative easing program that will purchase government bonds,
commercial paper and corporate bonds. Last month, the Japanese
government announced a 915 billion yen stimulus package. The Japanese
economy has been in the dumps for 20 years and stimulus programs, super
low interest rates, and quantitative easing hasn't fixed it. Yet,
despite encountering failure over and over and over and over again, the
government still repeats these same actions with the belief that somehow
they will work this time.

The Japanese government was the most important player in creating the
country's massive stock market and real estate bubbles in the 1980s. The
last twenty years has been the hangover from those bubbles. Incompetent
government policy both led to the creating of the problem and then
prevented it from being fixed. It took over 18 years for the stock
market to hit a low (assuming it doesn't go lower in the future).
Government policy delayed the inevitable, but didn't prevent it. Japan
now has the highest government debt to GDP ratio (over 200%) among
developed countries. Its debt is so high from its repeated stimulus
programs that it makes teetering-on-default Greece look fiscally
conservative. The inevitable outcome of Japan's actions will be collapse
and not recovery.

In dealing with the Credit Crisis and its aftermath, the U.S. has
followed Japan's lead. Just yesterday, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke said the
U.S. central bank should engage in more quantitative purchases of
treasury bonds because it would "ease financial conditions". Moreover,
Bernanke claims the first round of quantitative easing (also known as
money printing) was a major success. The figures certainly don't show
that this is the case. U.S. unemployment was around 7% when quantitative
easing began the first time and is now around 10%. The Fed doesn't
actually claim that economic conditions became better, since the obvious
facts make that impossible, but instead claims things would have been
much worse without their policy actions. How do we know things wouldn't
have been better? How do we know that things didn't become better in
the short-term, but will become much worse in the long-term? We do know
what has happened in Japan because of the same policy actions that the
Fed is following. But like the Japanese, the U.S. Fed apparently also
believes in miracles.

Former Societe Generale SA trader
Jerome Kerviel was convicted on all counts Tuesday in one of history’s
biggest trading frauds. He was sentenced to three years in jail and
ordered to pay the bank $6.7 billion in damages.

The ruling marked a huge victory for Societe Generale, one of
France’s most blue-blooded banks, which has worked to clean up its image
and put in place tougher risk controls since the scandal broke in 2008.

The 33-year-old former futures index trader was found guilty on
charges of forgery, breach of trust, and unauthorized computer use for
covering up bets worth nearly $69 billion between late 2007 and early
2008.

The court also ordered Kerviel to pay the bank back the $6.7 billion
that it lost unwinding his complex positions in January 2008—a
punishment he would almost certainly be unable to pay. That sum marked
the largest-ever alleged fraud by a single trader.

Defense lawyer Olivier Metzner said Kerviel would appeal and will
remain free pending that appeal.

Societe Generale spokeswoman Caroline Guillaumin called the verdict “an
important ruling that acknowledges the moral and financial harm done to
the bank and its staff.”

Kerviel maintained that the bank and his bosses tolerated his massive
risk-taking as long as it made money, which he did at first, racking up
$1.9 billion in profits for Societe Generale in 2007, the judge noted.

During the proceedings both sides admitted to mistakes, but Kerviel
insisted his bank superiors knew what he was doing.

The bank says it did not know Kerviel made bets of up to $69
billion—more than the bank’s total market value—on futures contracts on
three European equity indices, because his net position appeared
unremarkable since he balanced his real trades with fictitious
transactions.

Still, an internal report by the bank found managers failed to follow
up on 74 different alarms about Kerviel’s activities.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Jack Kelly devotes his most recent
weekly column to "The
rise of black Republicans." It is not just because Kelly
identifies two of the candidates we have highlighted in our "Strong
shots and long shots" series that I love this column. Kelly makes a
point I have not seen made elsewhere. Kelly remarks in connection with
candidate Charles Lollar
(I've added the links inside this paragraph):

He is running against the second most powerful Democrat in the House
in a strongly Democratic district (political guru Charlie Cook rates it
D+11), Mr. Lollar is given little chance to win in November. But he
shares with Mr. [Tim]
Scott, Mr. [Allen]
West, Mr. [Ryan]
Frazier and Bill
Randall (a retired Navy master chief petty officer who is running
against Rep. Brad Miller in North Carolina) the distinction of being a
black candidate in a white majority district.
Of the 39 black Democrats in the House, all but two represent
districts where blacks are a majority or plurality. One other black
Democratic contender is running in a white majority district. So in this
election, Republicans are running more blacks in white majority
districts than the Democrats are. Shouldn't that be taken into
consideration when accusations of racism are being hurled about?

Kelly makes a hard-hitting point not usually seen in the mainstream
media: "Accusations of racism against Republicans are a staple of
Democratic politics because Democrats need to keep blacks on the
plantation to remain viable nationally." This also explains the
prominence of such accusations against conservatives and Republicans in
the media adjunct of the Democratic Party.

Kevin Williamson recently posted
a reminder making a related point close to my heart. "Frederick
Douglass should be as much the face of the Republican party as Reagan
and Goldwater. If the GOP had any brains (I know, I know!) it would
spend a fair amount of money reminding the world: This is what a radical
Republican looks like" (photo above).

Tonight marked the return of the Real Housewives of
Atlanta with 2 new cast members Phaedra Parks and Cynthia Bailey.
This season NeNe is having marital problems, Kim’s got a new friend,
Sheree’s spending money, and Kandi’s has a new album. Last night the
girls came together, well kinda. My homies from the Real Atlanta
Housewives TV show, came together to watch the premier last night on
Bravo. NeNe and Sheree had to go to the NYC to promote the show, while
Kim Kandi Phaedra Parks Derrick J and Cynthia Bailey partied the night
away with all there closest friends as they viewed the first episode of
the show. Kim hosted a party at Twist in Buckhead. Her new Boo and
loving Daughter were in the building. Big Shout out to Brielle and her
Boy, you better listen to yo mama.
On the other side of town Kandi and all her friends came together at
justin’s to view the show but they were also there celebrating one of
her Kandi Koated Nights cast members birthday. My girls Rasheed and
Ebony Elektra were some of
the guest in the building.

The
Times Square bomber has been sentenced to life in prison without
parole. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

The Times Square Bomber, Faisal Shahzad, has been sentenced to life
in prison. He pled guilty and was not offered any deals by the
prosecution to do so. His sentence is without the possibility of parole.
Shahzad attempted to set off a crude explosive in Times Square.
Pedestrians alerted police to a smoking vehicle, which resulted in a
Times Square evacuation. The device was defused and Shahzad was quickly
arrested. He was affiliated with a Pakistan based Taliban organization.

Times Square bomber gets life

Faisal
Shahzad attempted to leave an explosive-laden SUV at Times Square.
The Times Square car bomb didn’t work, and he was soon arrested. He
entered a plea of guilty for the crime in June, according to CNN.
He was found guilty of 10 different crimes. The judge sentenced him to
life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Times Square
bomber, as he has been dubbed, was defiant in the face of incarceration
for the rest of his life. He pledged that a defeat of America was
imminent. He was adamant that adherents of Islam would soon sweep
Americans from their lands.

Shahzad communicated with Taliban in Pakistan

Shahzad was in regular communication with a Taliban group in
Pakistan. The jihadist group, called Tehrik-e-Taliban, also funded his
bomb operation, according to Reuters. He has a wife and
two children, whom he moved from Connecticut to Pakistan. Shahzad
intended to carry out another attack if the first had been successful.
He said that his intention was to kill up to 40 people or more. He would
have carried a second plot several weeks after the first. After his New
York terror plot failed, he attempted to flee to Dubai, but was caught
at LuGuardia airport.

Prosecution asked for life

The prosecution in the case asked for life. The prosecution felt that
life in prison would perhaps deter anyone else from thinking about
similar acts.

October 15th marks the day rapper T.I. will
go before a federal judge to plead to not have his probation revoked.

On Monday, District Judge
Charles Pannell Jr. summoned rapper T.I. for a 2 PM hearing on
allegations that he violated the terms of his probation when he was
pulled over and arrested with wife Tameka “Tiny” Cottle for possession of ecstasy in Los Angeles in the
beginning of September 2010. The same judge sentenced the rapper to one
year and one day behind bars for firearms violations in 2009.

TALLADEGA, AL -- Even on
the quiet, ancient campus of Talladega College in Alabama, news of the
salacious accusations about Bishop Eddie Long are the buzz among
students here.

None more so than 20 year-old Marcus Culliver, who
was one of the Bishop's co-called spiritual sons.

"At
Longfellow we all called him our pops," Culliver said. "We all called
him Dad because that's what he was to us. He took me to my first NFL
game, he put me through my first NFL camp when I was in high school
playing football. Anything we needed, if we were going through something
and our parents couldn't help us or we couldn't get something, he was
there for us to help us out. So to a certain extent, we were all his
sons."

Culliver says he went to church and to school with Long's
four accusers, as well as the Longfellow Academy at New Birth
Missionary Baptist Church, but says he saw nothing that would shake his
faith in his pastor.

"Pops is a really giving person," Culliver
said. "There were times in church where he'd give out cars to people who
didn't have a car, big Christmas events, feed the needy, give clothes
to people who didn't have clothes, whatever the case may be. His being a
giving person is not really news to me because he's helped a lot of
people in the community and across the world."

But Culliver
echoes the words of Bishop Long himself when he adds that nobody's
perfect.

"It's God's son, and you never know when God's working
through someone," said Culliver. "So for everybody out there who's
saying 'Bishop's doing this, Bishop's doing that and I know he was doing
this', you don't know that. It's an assumption. You don't know that. So
my advice for everybody out there is to pray for the church and pray
for the prophets. Just pray for the whole church."

The California Highway Patrol issued an AMBER Alert this evening at
the request of the Fresno Police Department. The subject of the AMBER
Alert is 8-year-old Elisa Cardenas of Fresno, California. Some outlets
are citing her last name as Cardena and Cardenaz.

According to media outlets, Cardenas was snatched off the street in
the 2700 block of Hammond Avenue at about 8 p.m. Monday evening. The
AMBER Alert was activated at about 10 p.m. The unknown male suspect
drove off with the girl in a late-70′s model, red or reddish brown in
color pickup truck.

Elisa Cardenas

Elisa is an 8-year-old Hispanic female with brown hair
and brown eyes. She is 4’0 tall and weighs 60 lbs. When last seen Elisa
was wearing a light purple sweater with Winnie the Pooh on the front
and light blue colored jeans.

Suspect

The unknown suspect is a Hispanic or white male, in
his 20′s, about 6″ 1′, with either a bald head or slick-backed hair. The
suspect was wearing a white tank top and jean shorts.

Suspect Vehicle

The suspect vehicle description is a late-70′s model
pickup truck, red or reddish brown in color.

The Parker/Spitzer show debuted on CNN last
night. It might as well have been called Geithner/Palin. Eliot Spitzer
began the show by calling for the president to fire his treasury
secretary. Then in the next two segments, Spitzer went off on Geithner. I
don’t like Geithner, but sheesh. Give it a rest.

Kathleen Parker went on and on about Sarah
Palin. So did every one else. Aaron Sorkin, praised by Spitzer and
Parker for his fine writing, said: “Sarah Palin is an idiot.” If that
passes for political discourse, include me out.

Palin was discussed in all four segments of
the show, perhaps in an effort to gin up controversy in the cable news
version of Google bombing. Odd that Barack Obama was barely mentioned.

Isn’t he, like, the president or something?

The show is an attempt to re-brand CNN as a
middle-of-the-road network that shows both sides of the political
spectrum.

The problem is neither Parker nor Spitzer
is a very good representative of their side. Parker’s Oogedy Boogedy
column after the 2008 election was a body blow to me and perhaps other
fans of her. Many conservatives likely will not forget her mocking their
religion.

As for Spitzer, he’s an ego-driven
prosecutor who climbed on the backs of many people who really did not
deserve to be prosecuted.

Also his call right off the bat — out of
the blue — to fire a man seemed intemperate.

The inner prosecutor in Spitzer showed when
he took a cheap shot at Andrew Breitbart by giving him 30 seconds to
explain the Shirley Sherrod case at the end of a segment that had
nothing to do with Mrs. Sherrod.

While there is a chemistry between them,
neither one seemed to take charge and conversations became a bunch of
chattering over one another. It seems unfair to put two people who have
no broadcast experience into the fray against the real professionals on
Fox News and MSNBC. You don’t have to like them to appreciate that Bill
O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann put in their time to learn their craft.

I wish Parker/Spitzer luck. But the show
gave me a headache. Too much talking over one another and too little
focus on something other than Sarah Palin. Maybe it will improve later
when I give it a second look in a few weeks.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Solar power is coming to President Barack Obama’s
house.

The most famous residence in America, which has already boosted its
green credentials by planting a garden, plans to install solar panels
atop the White House’s living quarters. The solar panels are to be
installed by spring 2011, and will heat water for the first family and
supply some electricity.

The plans will be formally announced later Tuesday by White House
Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley and Energy
Secretary Steven Chu.

Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush both tapped the sun
during their days in the White House. Carter in the late 1970s spent
$30,000 on a solar water-heating system for West Wing offices. Bush’s
solar systems powered a maintenance building and some of the mansion,
and heated water for the pool.

Obama, who has championed renewable energy, has been under increasing
pressure to lead by example by installing solar at 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue, something White House officials said has been under
consideration since he first took office.

The decision perhaps has more import now after legislation to reduce
global warming pollution died in the Senate, despite the White House’s
support. Obama has vowed to try again on a smaller scale.

Last month, global warming activists with 350.org carried one of
Carter’s solar panels - which were removed in 1986 - from Unity College
in Maine to Washington to urge Obama to put solar panels on his roof. It
was part of a global campaign to persuade world leaders to install
solar on their homes. After a meeting with White House officials, they
left Washington without a commitment.

That campaign followed calls by the solar industry for the White
House to become a national billboard for solar power.

“Putting solar on the roof of the nation’s most important real estate
is a powerful symbol calling on all Americans to rethink how we
generate electricity,” Solar Energy Industries Association President
Rhone Resch said.

On his radio show this morning, Beck said he hired his own video
crews to cover the One Nation rally and interview participants.
Transcript at
TV Newser:

Beck:

We sent photographers down and reporters down. We hired
independent crews because I didn’t want to, quite honestly, put a FOX
crew into that lion’s den and have anybody have to answer that they were
from FOX. So, we hired — I personally hired — independent crews to go
down and take photos and do interviews with people in the crowd. You’ll
see them tonight.
And does it matter?

You know, this is what I told you about a year ago. I said, right now
they’re all saying that they’re not communists, they’re not
socialists, they’re not revolutionaries but mark my words, I said,
there will come a team when they’ll just come out and say, it doesn’t
matter anyway. We’re there, gang, we’re there, and the American people
have to decide.

He compared footage of his 8/28 rally and the 10/2 rally on his
television show on Fox, this afternoon.

SCLC TODAY

TODAY'S NEWS NJ

To Contact Today's News NJ

Frontline: Raising Adam Lanza

In the wake of the mass killings at Sandy Hook, FRONTLINE looks for answers to the elusive question: who was Adam Lanza?

Blog Talk Radio: Antoinette Harrell

Is genealogy a hobby or not for people of African Descent?

Today's News NJ

TODAY'S NEWS NJ

Advertise

Today’s News NJ is an extremely fast growing news blog, pulling in over 10,000 views a month and growing every day! Currently we are building a reputation of a reliable news source, striving to provide relevant, useful, make sense news topics that promise to provide insight into world, national and state news stories that affect you, your family, your neighborhood and your country.

We are also in the process of vast expansion. With the roll out of a new format, we have finally jumped the hurdle from just another blog to a credible news site. Our rankings on Google News and other news collector sites are rising every day. We are in the works on several expansions that will grow the Today’s News NJ community to even new heights! An open forum, a newsletter, members section, print editorials and ultimately a radio show are just some of the plans in the making..

All of this expansion will grow us to the status of common household name sites such as the Huffington Post and Politico. However, we don’t plan to stop there! We hope to provide an alternative media outlet for unbiased, insightful news that you can benefit from and to provide stories and information you may not find on other larger news outlets.

Why advertise with Today’s News NJ?

Today’s News NJ Blog is among the most visited and influential political and News Blogs in New Jersey. Blognetnews New Jersey consistently ranks Today’s News NJ among the top 5 most influential Blogs in the state and has been featured on websites like CNN, Washington Post, The Star Ledger and Fanhouse.com news website a number of times. You can purchase a side banner on Today’s News NJ Blog for $50.00 a month or a once daily in-post ad for $100.00 per month. The banners will appear on each and every page of Today’s News NJ Blog.

For More Information Call: (609) 393 1830 or E-mail: gcw2008@gmail.comYou can purchase a side banner on Today’s News NJ Blog for $50 a month or or an across the top rectangular ad for $100.00 per month. The banners will appear on each and every page of Today’s News NJ Blog. http://www.todaysnewsnj.blogspot/